Why Go To College If You Have No Intentions Of Using Your Degree?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by MainerMikeBrown, Jan 7, 2015.

  1. Megalith

    Megalith Contributor Contributor

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    Here is some counter data

    Inflation compounds, so even a 1% difference to the widespread belief is a problem for everybody. To be fair, pointing out what current inflation rates are doesn’t say anything about the pattern which has been seen over the years. At any one time the inflation rate isn’t important. It’s about the trend over a long period of time, so I don’t understand why you would use it as a counter point.

    This topic is related greatly to economics. “Why people get degrees they never use?" Is a valid question, which i am providing an answer for and then giving my opinion on the matter.

    And this would be where I point out that these other reason aren’t what the majority of people get their degrees for, especially when considering the people who don’t plan on using their degree. And even more so when you consider that a tenth of all degrees are fake, which is further incentivized by the fact that they can’t get into legal trouble for lying on their resume about their degree. That, by itself, makes the idea of using a degree for qualification reasons an all around terrible idea.

    Education shouldn’t be about just getting a job. I agree wholeheartedly. That is part of the problem at hand here. Unfortunately, whatever reasons you come up with doesn’t reflect the majority, which is what i’m looking at here, and explains most of everything you guys have been talking about.

    The system itself isn’t bad. it worked fifty years ago, it should be able to work now. It’s that certain things inflict problems on the system. It’s the law of entropy at work here and our ability to adapt a system is pathetic. So bad it seems like we are hellbent on our own destruction. And I think it is rather unfortunate that America continues to lead the standard for these types of things, creating the same issues over the world. (which you are telling me is true if many employers outside our country require a degree for a job that doesn’t need a particular degree.)

    I may have been less vulgar but all the same passion and disgust is riddled within.

    It’s this type of reliability thinking that caused this issue in the first place. self-education doesn't even calculate into this. it’s believing that only a school can provide education in the first place. Like they are so intimately tied together that separating them is impossible. From my experience they aren’t even the most productive place to learn. You could learn more quickly using entry level jobs from just about any business, and that is where the opportunity to go up the ladder comes into play. In those situations you get everything you mentioned, structure, feedback, and evaluation. Unfortunately people seemed to have forgotten this and now there is a separation of qualification from the higher end jobs that didn’t exist before in most all companies, stopping advancement for people without a degree. Which incentivizes a degree for people who want a good paying job. The circle repeats. I wish people didn’t go to college because they want a good paying job. But that is not the case for reason stated many times now, and that has lead to this problem. Hope this helps :)

    Not exactly. My 2015 dollar is worth less in 2020. I still have to pay 1 dollar in 2020. I don’t use a 2015 dollar to pay it back since it’s 2020. I use a 2020 dollar to pay back a dollar i borrowed in 2015. Since my dollar is worth less now I have to pay more for that same dollar I borrowed then, not including interest. It’s pretty much untracked interest which isn’t useful to anybody.

    EDIT: Oh you are right Chichenfreak, I was thinking about that a little differently. so it's not a double whammy like I thought, still a whammy though.
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2015
  2. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    No. You have this reversed. In 2015 you borrowed some dollars. You did something with them. (You're surely not saying that you borrowed money and then put it under your mattress, right?) When you did something with them, you got the benefit of their 2015 value. When you pay them back, you pay back the same number of dollars, but they're lower-value 2020 dollars.

    Let's say that a fast food hamburger costs two dollars. You borrow a hundred dollars in 2015, and you buy fifty burgers.

    In 2020, you have to pay back that hundred dollars. It's still a hundred dollars, 100. Let's say that we've had severe inflation so that in 2020, a hamburger costs three dollars. But you still only pay one hundred dollars. So to pay back a loan that bought you fifty burgers, you are using an amount of money that is worth thirty-three (and a third) burgers. You got fifty burgers. You pay back thirty-three burgers.

    The interest, the stated interest on the loan, costs you money on a loan. Inflation doesn't cost you money on a loan. Inflation does reduce the value of your savings. It doesn't increase the cost of your loan. Deflation would increase the cost of your loan.
     
  3. Megalith

    Megalith Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah your right, I already edited my post.
     

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